cyn's mini-epic
This is what my mornings looked like last week.
working aid station #1
(i'm to the left handing someone things out of their bag)
For 4 of the 6 days of the Breck Epic - I've been working Aid Station #1 for that day's stage. After working Aid #1 - I eat lunch, take a nap and then 'cherry pick' the fun parts of that day's stage and go riding for ~2.5 - 3 hours.
While the hard-cores are doing a whopping ~225 miles with the total of 35,600 elevation gain in 6 days. I started on Saturday and and my totals are a measly 109 miles with 15,537 elevation gain...and i tell you - i'm whooped. (I know those totals don't sound like much to a road rider - but let me tell you those were demanding miles - I had one guy tell me that 1 day is harder than TheTripleBypass)
I'm considering doing this race next year so I wanted to check it out and this way I got an up close and personal look at the race. And let me tell you - this isn't for the faint-of-heart.
After 5 days of riding (I started my mini-epic riding the day before the race started) basically one-half of the race - I'm exhausted.
I was on the fence about even riding on day 5 and I figured I'd take blow off riding. One of the race contestants (from Calgary, Canada) that I had gotten to know over the past few days wanted to ride with me. (he dropped out of the race after stage 1 due to altitude sickness was feeling much better by his 5th day at altitude)
So off we went on a 25mile/3500k ride. We basically rode the Stage 4 course from Aid #1, past Aid #2 and up the double-track to the CT, then down the West Ridge into Blair Witch and back to Aid #1.
Surprisingly even tho I was super tired I feel I rode fairly well - even cleaning "Vomit Hill". As we rode along I found out Linden is a 29 year old fireman and he's raced TransRockies where him and his partner finished in the top third of the field. One the downhills he was faster (he's 6'5" weighs 200lbs and was on a Stumpjumper FS) but I wasn't that far behind. I ended up pushing myself pretty hard on this ride to not slow up Linden and I felt I held my own. I'm glad I ended my 5 days in Summit with a good ride.
hmm...maybe if I actually train and prep for a 6 day stage race - maybe I could do it...we'll see... :)
Waiting to load aid station bags into
the truck (photo credits: yuki saito)
the truck (photo credits: yuki saito)
working aid station #1(i'm to the left handing someone things out of their bag)
For 4 of the 6 days of the Breck Epic - I've been working Aid Station #1 for that day's stage. After working Aid #1 - I eat lunch, take a nap and then 'cherry pick' the fun parts of that day's stage and go riding for ~2.5 - 3 hours.
While the hard-cores are doing a whopping ~225 miles with the total of 35,600 elevation gain in 6 days. I started on Saturday and and my totals are a measly 109 miles with 15,537 elevation gain...and i tell you - i'm whooped. (I know those totals don't sound like much to a road rider - but let me tell you those were demanding miles - I had one guy tell me that 1 day is harder than TheTripleBypass)
I'm considering doing this race next year so I wanted to check it out and this way I got an up close and personal look at the race. And let me tell you - this isn't for the faint-of-heart.
After 5 days of riding (I started my mini-epic riding the day before the race started) basically one-half of the race - I'm exhausted.
I was on the fence about even riding on day 5 and I figured I'd take blow off riding. One of the race contestants (from Calgary, Canada) that I had gotten to know over the past few days wanted to ride with me. (he dropped out of the race after stage 1 due to altitude sickness was feeling much better by his 5th day at altitude)
So off we went on a 25mile/3500k ride. We basically rode the Stage 4 course from Aid #1, past Aid #2 and up the double-track to the CT, then down the West Ridge into Blair Witch and back to Aid #1.
Surprisingly even tho I was super tired I feel I rode fairly well - even cleaning "Vomit Hill". As we rode along I found out Linden is a 29 year old fireman and he's raced TransRockies where him and his partner finished in the top third of the field. One the downhills he was faster (he's 6'5" weighs 200lbs and was on a Stumpjumper FS) but I wasn't that far behind. I ended up pushing myself pretty hard on this ride to not slow up Linden and I felt I held my own. I'm glad I ended my 5 days in Summit with a good ride.
hmm...maybe if I actually train and prep for a 6 day stage race - maybe I could do it...we'll see... :)
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